Kaizen is the well-established Eastern philosophy and practice of continuous improvement. Kaizen’s applications and principles have long been embodied in quality and productivity initiatives in the automotive industry.

Frederick Taylor wrote “The Principles of Scientific Management” in 1911. These principles, known as Taylorism, seek to split a worker's job into a series of repetitive operations to speed up production. The Japanese “Taylorist” variation of Kaizen builds on the principle of Taylorism. Kaizen attempts to gain an “insight” into the “tricks of the worker's trade” by rewarding workers for the disclosure of their best practices. These practices can be used by other workers to increase their efficiency.

This assignment requires you to research and write about the use of Kaizen techniques in the automotive industry.

Use the ITT Tech Virtual Library to locate an article that discusses the effective use of Kaizen techniques in the automotive industry.

Write a memo to the instructor in which you:

Explain how the article helped you to understand the concepts of Kaizen.